Losing none of the exuberance which has become a hallmark of Simon
Armitage's poetry, these poems are more personal. The book is divided into
three sections - the "Book of Matches" which are sonnets, "Becoming of Age" and
"Reading the Bans", a series of poems about Armitage's marriage.Losing none of the exuberance and verbal agility which have become a
hallmark of Simon Armitage's poetry, these poems are more obviously personal -
the ensuing risks, of vulnerability and exposure, more dangerous. The poems
mark a coming-of-age of a poet who is by now established as a leading
voice.; The book is arranged in three sections. The first part, the "Book of
Matches", is a series of sonnets. Each poem is designed to relay the urgency of
a struck match, packed with discoveries, flashes of insights on family and
life. The poems in the middle section, "Becoming of Age" relate incidents, from
other times, other lives and experiences, to a common life. The final section,
"Reading the Bans", is a moving sequence of poems on the poet's marriage.
